Kako and Kota's relationship
Kako and Kota have been married to each other since volume two, however, Kota proposed to Kako already by the end of volume one. The two share a mutual love and adoration for each other and as such are capable of putting their trust in both their relationship with each other, as well as in the feelings they share for one another. Kako and Kota are in a commuter marriage, meaning that they live separately from each other and only see one another occasionally when Kota's busy schedule allows for it. Kako's also kept her maiden name (for now) as an attempt to hide the controversial marriage from outsiders. Additionally, she's opted to wearing her wedding ring as a necklace, further aiding the facade. Despite all this, the two find themselves involved in a love triangle, as one of Kako's closest friends, Heisuke, also has feelings for her, and has sworn to steal her away in four years' time. His threats don't seem to worry Kota too much however, seeing as he's fully confident in Kako being in love with him and him only. Kako's Feelings for Kota Kako realizes she has feelings for Kota very early on in their relationship and is the one who is initially more active in pursuing the other's love. When she's rejected by him, she feels mortified, disappointed and heartbroken. She tries her best to get over him multiple times in different ways, yet somehow, he always ends up back on her path, and with his superb capability to hide his inner thoughts and emotions, just ends up hurting Kako more, as she's spiralling in an endless void of questions, such as why he doesn't seem to feel at least a bit embarrassed when they meet. Despite her best efforts to leave him in the past, Kako can't help but worry for Kota, and once she overhears a group of local delinquents plan an ambush on him, she decides to intervene. This leads to her saving Kota just barely from getting hit in the head by Heisuke, however, in the process, she gets hurt instead. A few days later she wakes up in the hospital and notices that Kota is there with her. She begs him to leave her alone if he's going to reject her again anyway, however, to her surprise, Kota comes clean about his feelings for her, leaving her overjoyed, as she cries of happiness while accepting his marriage proposal. Once they've officially gotten married, she notices that she doesn't know much about him at all. All she really knows is his age, career and that he seems to switch personalities when he's working versus when he's off-duty. This leads to her thinking, that maybe marrying her was a joke on Kota's part, and now he can't get out of the deal since she and her family took it seriously, and perhaps he doesn't actually love her at all. Her worries are quickly proven wrong though, as Kota opens up around her more and even gives her the second key to his apartment, allowing her to come and go whenever she wants to. He also admits that he finds himself constantly worrying about her during work hours, showing her a tiny bit of his tremendously overprotective nature. She's quick to develop a deep respect toward Kota, looking up to him and admiring him dearly. Kako has also confessed to Yui, that she's not even ready to have sex yet (much to her friend's raw amusement). Kota's Feelings for Kako Kota is quick to develop an interest in Kako, however, he's about equally as fast in killing off this infatuation when he finds out her real age. He isn't quite successful in this though, as his interest in her keeps resurfacing over and over again until at last, he cannot deny his feelings for her any longer. He gets pushed over the edge when Kako, in order to protect him, ends up hurt and in the hospital. This reminds him of the time his father died from somewhat similar circumstances. This has led to him feeling deep regret for not ever showing his father how much he truly loved and respected him, as he'd instead chosen to insult him and push him away until it was too late. When Kako comes to, he's relieved to find he didn't lose another person dear to him, and so, he ends up confessing his feelings for her and asking for her hand in marriage. He does this because it is the only option for the two to be together. Kako accepts his proposal, and after a few days of persuasion, so do her parents. Kako's Father did, however, make Kota swear not to have sex with her until she's graduated, afraid that she might get pregnant. Kota has (so far) stayed true to this, noting that he's always very meticulous about his actions toward her and holding back on everything that could lead to anything more than a few pecks on the lips. At this point, Kota has already slowly but steadily developed a profound habit of worrying for Kako's well-being, as well as an almost overprotective attachment to her. He confesses that he finds himself uneasy whenever a report comes to the office of something having happened to a young woman, thinking it might have been Kako. His worry isn't helped in the least bit by the fact that Kako seems to have to spend a considerable amount of time home alone, as her Father works out of town and her Mother has other business to attend to, such as girls' club meetings, etcetera. This could be part of the reason as to why he finds being around her extremely calming. As the worry-wart he is, he's found multiple ways to make sure Kako stays safe, often making sure before he leaves Kako's place that everything is in order. Knowing that Kako is but a teenager, he sometimes finds himself quite surprised by the amount of maturity the girl holds within her, as well as how empathetic she can be. With time he also seems to learn to fully embrace her bullheaded nature and learns how to deal with it efficiently. Kota might be in fact a bit too ''overprotective of Kako, and the ugly side of this rears its head out into the open when it is revealed that Kako, who'd started volunteering at Oto Children's Home, actually has Tee-sensei, the man who (as a 12-15-year-old), killed Kota's father, as one of her colleagues and friends. While Kota's reaction to shield Kako from him is understandable and from his point of view highly logical, he starts to go slightly off the rails, going as far as scaring Kako in an attempt to make her quit working. (It is worth noting that the death of his father has caused Kota immense trauma, and seeing Tee-sensei resurface in his life triggers some of his old problems, such as insomnia, to take over once more.) When Kako, despite this, decides to continue working, he falls into a depressed state and starts to push her away from him. This eventually leads to the two not seeing each other for a long time and not keeping in contact, until Kako decides to take action by going to visit Kota in an attempt to fix things. She finds him looking worn out and in a state where he clearly hasn't been fully taking care of himself, and when she tries to reach out to him, he mocks her choice to stay at the care home by implying that it's more important to her than he is. Right after he apologizes for being so nasty, and tells her to just not worry and that soon enough he'll be back to normal. Feeling choked and heartbroken, Kako asks if by this Kota means that there's nothing she can do to ease his pain, to which he responds by touching her ear (a reference to what was foreshadowed earlier in the series when Kota scared Kako for the first time by teasing her with a sadistic smile on his face that intimidated her), and telling her to be his, perhaps putting aside the promise he'd made to Kako's Father of having no sex before her graduation. (Worth noting here is, that right after in the scene that foreshadowed this one, Kako exclaimed that Kota's actions made her notice she's ''definitely not ready to have sex yet.) People Who Know of the Marriage (Presented in the order in which they found out about the marriage.) Mikado Yaguchi The first one to find out about Kota's marriage proposal was Kako's dearest friend, Mikado. She is at first skeptical of it, thinking that Kako was still affected by the blow she'd gotten to the head, and hence raving on about complete nonsense, but once Kako's parents accept the marriage, she's hit with the reality of it. While she initially didn't like Kota for having hurt Kako's feelings, she quickly comes to friendlier terms with him. She supports the relationship and even helps the two hide it from the other students at Oto High School, including Jiro, a mutual friend and classmate of Kako and Mikado's. Her attempts at hiding the relationship sometimes end up biting Kako in the ass though, such as when Mikado fabricated a lie that Kako had been dealing with horrible diarrhea, embarrassing Kako in the process. It is also worth noting, that it is through Kako and Kota's relationship, that Mikado ends up meeting Ryu, with whom she seems to share a mutual, perhaps romantic interest. Kako's Parents Kako's Mother Kako's Mother was pleasantly surprised when Kako told her about having gotten proposed to. She fully supports the marriage idea from the moment she heard of it, which could have been partially influenced by her seeing how worried Kota was of Kako when she first met her future son-in-law at the hospital. She tries her best to convince her husband of letting the two marry but bears only a small bit of influence on his final decision. She's very fond of Kota, especially because of his career as a police officer. It reminds her of the times when she, at the same age as Kako, used to have a huge crush on a local officer from her home town, whom she would bother in her free time. She is very caring toward Kota and enjoys his company a lot, which has led to her embarrassing her daughter many times in front of him. Despite this, she also knows when the two need some space and is more than willing to give it to them. She likes to tease Kako about grandkids and is extremely proud of her daughter for having landed a husband as reliable as Kota at such a young age. Kako's Father Out of the two, Mr. Motoya is the one who doesn't jump out of glee when he finds out his daughter has been proposed to by a man older than her by seven years. He puts his foot down on the matter, refusing it in an instance, thinking that Kota doesn't actually love her. However, he's later on proven wrong, when he follows the two as they go out on a date, and sees Kota caring for his daughter just as much as he does. Before he accepts the marriage, he asks to punch Kota. The young man welcomes him to, and barely feels any pain when he gets hit, seeing as Kako's Father isn't the strong type. Mr. Motoya explains to him, that despite getting old and weaker, he's still given his all in providing and protecting his family, and now he wants to make sure that his daughter will be in good hands if she were to marry Kota. Kota promises him to take good care of her, and the next day the two finally get the blessings from both of Kako's parents. Kota has mentioned plenty of times, that Kako's Father has good intuition, seeing as he seems to always bust into the room or call Kota when the two share even a tiny bit of skinship. Kota has admitted to being in awe of this ability that his father-in-law possesses. With time, Kako's Father seems to worry less, seeing as the number of times he appears out of thin air to interfere with the couple's time together lessens and lessens. The Police Force Shuichi Yamamoto Yamamoto was suspecting something long before the actual proposal took place. He had developed something akin to a friendship with Kako already, seeing as he was indirectly often associated with her through Kota. He supports the couple full-heartedly, though he often teases Kota about the relationship, noting on things like the way he looks at Kako, how his mannerisms soften around her (even on-duty), and so on. He also keeps in contact with Kako through LINE and likes to keep taps on both her and Kota so. Fumi Komori Komori didn't initially seem too thrilled with the relationship, but this could be because she rarely portrays any sort of emotion at work. During her free time, however, she acts quite friendly with both Kota and Kako and has even noted that Kota is easy to read when it comes to how being with Kako affects his mood positively. The Teachers at Oto High School Hajime Harada Harada-sensei doesn't care about the fact that Kako and Kota are married, seeing as he had never brought it up despite having known about it for over a year before Kako came to talk about her relationship with him. At that point, he straight out said it's none of his or any other teacher's business, and that outside of work, none of them care whatsoever about the whole matter. Kaoru Sagano Kaoru found out about Kota having gotten married in a brief voicemail left on her phone, in which Kota seemingly doesn't reveal the name, age or occupation of his wife, leading to Kaoru having to take matters into her own hands by coming on a surprise visit to Kota's place. There, much to her surprise, she finds a teenage girl waiting for Kota to get out of the shower, instead of an adult woman. She proceeds to assume the worst and that Kota has hired a poor teenage prostitute despite being married but gets proven wrong by Kako's reaction to seeing Kota's bare chest. She immediately grows quite attached to Kako, and the two continue to get along perfectly. They share a mutual love for home videos of Kota as a kid, as well as old pictures of him, and Kaoru makes sure to, whenever she meets Kako, bring her some old footage of little Kota to gawk at. Heisuke Okami Heisuke finds out about Kako and Kota's relationship by accident. He was able to put two and two together after seeing a picture of young Kota as Kako's wallpaper on her phone, as well as later witnessing Kota disguised as a high school student at the Oto High School cultural festival. His suspicions are confirmed by Kota himself when Heisuke is able to lead him on to accidentally revealing the secret. While he originally thought that the person Kako was together with must have been great, the moment he found out it was Kota, all those feelings shattered, seeing as he absolutely despised him. As such, he's both disappointed and angered by having been beaten to the punch by the man he least would have expected or hoped to be Kako's significant other. This further sparks the rivalry between the two young men, and despite them later on warming up to each other, they still remain frienemies and rivals in love. Despite this, Heisuke respects Kako's feelings for Kota and does not go out of his way to intervene with their relationship- as a matter of fact, all he does is confess to Kako and hug her, and even these actions he took only under the firm belief that he'd never get to see her again. Regardless, Heisuke is a constant factor in the background, that slowly keeps adding irons to the fire, like when he appeared in Tokyo during Class 2D's field trip. While there, he shares a few moments with Kako that could be considered quite romantic. These instances include going out at night to see the lights of Tokyo shine in the darkness, going to the amusement park, taking a bullet train together and going to a small zoo to see bunnies. However, Kako and Heisuke share most of these moments with their other friends and were rarely just by themselves. Yui Sendo Just like Heisuke, Yui just happened to be able to put two and two together from a few small clues she got, leading her to suspect Kako and Kota's relationship wasn't as unromantic as they claimed. These clues include her accidentally stumbling upon Kota and Kako while they were embracing, and Kako once being overcome by emotion and holding onto Kota in public despite their attempts to avoid such situations. Yui doesn't care about the relationship that the couple share, however, she is quite annoyed by the fact that Kako still remains on friendly terms with Heisuke. She finds this repulsive, thinking that Kako is purposefully leading him on while married to another man. This ends up affecting the way the two girls see each other at the start of their relationship, giving them a bitter kickoff for their friendship. Nonetheless, she ends up understanding that her original suspicions couldn't have been further from the truth and that Kako is in fact just way too nice for her own good and also ever so slightly clueless. After befriending Kako, her stance on Kako and Kota's marriage remains the same, however, she does take every opportunity to tease the two about it, such as when she exclaimed Kota was Kako's "poor husband" for not yet having had sex with her. While she cherishes Kako, she isn't too keen on Kota, as she doesn't like the way he seems to switch personalities completely between how he acts on-duty and off-duty. The case isn't helped by Kota's complete withdrawal from even trying to make Yui like him. Despite this, they do get along, and Kota even saved her life when she almost burned to death. Yui has also ended up becoming something of a love and sex counsellor for Kako, as she's more experienced in these fields than the latter. Ryu Katsunaga It is unknown when exactly (or how) Ryu found out about Kota having gotten married, however, he seems to be supportive of the relationship, sometimes even giving Kota advice on how to deal with Kako's emotions. He also likes to tease Kota about the relationship in a somewhat similar way to how Yamamoto does. He hasn't interacted with Kako that often, so his take on her is yet to be revealed, however, he does seem to fancy Mikado, whom he met through Kako and Kota. Romantic Moments *Volume 1, Case. 3: Kota's proposal *Volume 6, Case. 23: Kako's birthday References